Ogden: ‘We cannot kick the can down the road on everything’

Senate Finance Chair Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said budget writers who’ve already decided against funding $4.8 billion in projected Medicaid expenses in the upcoming two-year budget can’t do the same with school funding.

“It is a colossal mistake to underfund Medicaid at the level we’re doing and then not change the state statutes so that instead of having one big hole in two years, we have two big holes,” Ogden said.

If lawmakers don’t change the current school funding formulas, the state will still owe school districts an additional $4 billion – the amount that the proposed budget falls short of funding those formulas – Ogden said.

“If we don’t change the state law and basically scale back on that entitlement, then you’ll have that hole that we have to fill in addition to the probable Medicaid hole, and we will really be in serious trouble in this state,” Ogden said.

“We can’t kick the can down the road on both Medicaid and school finance at the same time. When I was talking to the governor today, I said I’m not leaving here with this place in worse shape than I found it,” Ogden said.

“…. What I’m trying to do is to make sure that the state of Texas in two years doesn’t have two giant underfunded programs, just one. … This is a really big deal. We cannot kick the can down the road on everything.”

After the House failed to approve a school funding bill Monday, House leaders said they’d try to attach key elements to the revenue bill that must pass for the proposed state budget to balance, Senate Bill 1811.

“If 1811 dies, we really are in a special session,” Ogden said.

Asked what he had to say about the leadership this session, Ogden said, “Nothing. I have nothing to say one way or another.”